I’ve still used it 90% of the time over my Axe 3 a couple months on. Most of the time if I switch back to fractal or Kemper it’s to see if I’m missing anything. I’m really not.
Maybe it’s just ideal for my workflow. I keep it setup on a side table and I can easily adjust or setup anything I need in seconds. No computer editor.
I’ve run my Friedman JJ Junior through a load box into the fender for effects and it sounds great but the amp isn’t noticeably better sonically. Same thing with the IRX. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze so I just run models.
Maybe I’m not running the right null tests and haven’t analyzed waveforms properly or my ears are shot past 15k. I keep trying to hear why it’s so much worse than fractal but I can’t find it.
The only real sonic complaint I have is some distortion on edge of breakup tones that seems too loud. The infamous helix squirrels I think. I hooked up my Friedman JJ through a load box and cranked the clean channel. It does the exact same thing. Clean at first then a warble of distortion the ln back to clean. The only difference is the TMP distortion is a bit louder or more apparent. But I’m comparing a clean channel from a high gain el84 amp to a Princeton model.
I’ve had dms with people who also can’t figure out the hype on fractal stuff. We’re all stubborn trying to make it work because everyone says it’s so clearly better. A lot of people don’t like to post publicly on this stuff because it invites a shit storm.
I’m not even saying fractal is bad by any stretch. Again I’ve had the axe fx 3 since 2019 and still have it. If I sell it I will probably only do so to get an fm3 or next gen. If they made a more compact desktop version with a touch screen I might try that with a foot controller.
That’s my 10 cents anyway. The UI and ease of finding sounds without tweaking is extremely high to me and I don’t feel I’m giving up on sonic quality in the process.
I really do think it's individual, which should probably give us all pause when reading someone insist X or Y is "best." I've had both for a long time now, and I find my FM9T much more satisfying to use than my TMP, in large part due to what I see as the latter's extremely spare selection of amps. Some don't care about that at all, and I certainly am not going to insist that they
have to care about it. I also find that the FM9T sounds better when comparing apples to apples (especially on dry amps), though the difference is subtle, not the chasm that some fanboy types would have you believe.
To me, no device is all that hard to use once I learn it. So it comes down to feature set and function. The TMP has a lot of features that appeal to a lot of people. The latest update certainly positions the TMP as a leader in the guitar synth space, for instance, and they do love adding new delays and reverbs. It's definitely a good choice for some people. Just not for me, at least not yet. For me, it's a practice rig, which probably means I should sell it. When I want to create, I go to the FM9T first, because I find it less limiting and more suited to my process.
The TMP's big calling card out of the gate was the skeuomorphic interface, which included knobs for in-amp effects like reverb. They've done next to nothing to leverage that since, because the amp additions have been a slow trickle spread out over everything including bass amps. And they stopped being committed to the skeuomorphic representation almost immediately - the Vibro-King never got in-amp effect controls. Fanboys on the Discord will say you can just use the outboard effects, and some may be very happy doing it that way, but that was never the point when they were first touting the interface.
Anyway, I don't think it's going to fade from the market or anything. From what I've seen (including here), it still gets less talk than other high end modelers on every forum and social media platform. Fender seems very disinterested in marketing it hard. But it's got a dedicated set of fans, and the most recent update is likely to expand that a bit.